Why Lifetime Financial Growth?

As a Guardian General Agency with its roots dating back over 40 years, no one is better positioned to help you build your career than LFG. We are committed to the development of the best individuals in our industry, and Guardian is one of the industry’s most respected names. Why? Because it has always paid attention to the basics: product performance, financial strength, careful management and unquestioned integrity. At LFG, we are a team of highly motivated individuals where our strength is generated from our commitment to our clients, our producers, our staff and our industry.

As an Associate of LFG, and a Guardian Financial Representative, you can define your career any way you wish – be your own boss, keep flexible hours, earn unlimited income. You’ll join a community of professionals and a company with a solid reputation. Best of all, you’ll be building a business for yourself, but not by yourself. Our firm offers you all the backup support of a large agency, including specialists in the areas of Disability Income, Long Term Care Insurance, Pensions, Employee Benefits, Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, Business Succession Planning and Investment Management*.

In addition, our associates can represent an additional 25-30 carriers for the life, DI and LTC needs of their clients. We use individual and team building approaches combined with The Living Balance Sheet^® to help you build a solid and thriving career.

About David Hammerstrom:

Due to his leadership and obvious organizational skills, David E.Hammerstrom has been appointed Managing Director of the Louisville‐based office June 2009. David originally joined Lifetime Financial Growth in 2007. Since then he has been recognized for his executive talents and organizational development within our regional firm and with our national affiliate, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY.
David brings 27 years of experience in the insurance and financial services industry and holds the CLF® (Chartered Leadership Fellow)designation and the RFC (Registered Financial Consultant) designation through Park Avenue Securities. He is a qualifying member of the Million Dollar
Round Table (MDRT). David has built an immutable reputation resulting from his professional and personal accomplishments. In addition to his recognized accomplishments in the financial services industry, David is a leader in his church and local community. He serves as the Chairman of the Northern Board of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He is an adjunct workshop moderator at Xavier University, Williams College of Business and is a guest lecturer for the marketing department at the University of Cincinnati College of Business. Mr. Hammerstrom’s role as managing director will include the management and operations of our Louisville office, which includes the developing and driving strategic business initiatives to provide horizontal and vertical growth to the Louisville and Lexington markets.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
It may be hard to imagine that there are still some sectors of financial services that are hiring in the midst of economic turmoil. Despite the high-profile economic blows to some publicly traded financial companies, Guardian is a well-run mutual insurance company (owned by policyholders as opposed to shareholders) and is hiring aggressively despite one of the worst bear markets since the Great Depression. The average financial representative is over 50 years old. Like its industry peers, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America has a challenge on its hands—recruiting the next generation of financial representatives as the largest segment of its sales force approaches retirement. Thanks to diligent recruiting efforts, well-qualified successors are coming on board. But now more than ever, the newest financial reps aren’t straight out of college, but switching from careers in different fields. Eighty percent of recent Guardian recruits have worked several years outside the insurance industry, versus about 60 percent some 20 years ago; a change that can be attributed to broad economic forces plus the evolving needs of individuals and small business owners. Fran Luisi, founder of recruiting firm Charleston Partners, sees several forces spurring career changers, including social acceptability. “You’re seeing people with solid foundations in a larger corporate environment leveraging experiences and transferable skills into new careers or entrepreneurial ventures,” he says. “It’s much more acceptable than it was years ago.”
Also, many employees leaving established organizations do so believing that employers have little loyalty to them. Thus, Luisi says, assumptions about economic security that might once have kept them on their original career path are less of a factor today.
The current state of the job market coupled with headlines shouting the latest casualties of the economic fallout has many employees considering their next career move. Changing jobs is commonplace and, in fact, occurs frequently for skilled workers – on average three to five times during an employees’ lifetime according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This fact, combined with current economic conditions, affords us all the opportunity to tap a rather substantial pool of talent that may not have been considered previously. The days of defining a prospective agent by their resumes alone are a thing of the past. Today’s candidates are evaluated on transferable skills, not former job titles. Some of the primary skill sets of other professions apply quite well to the demands required of a financial representative. For teachers, this is a business very much focused on educating people. For lawyers, the same command of detail needed for their cases and in the courtroom is imperative when putting together the pieces of a client’s financial puzzle. Those occupying other consultative sales professions, real estate agents and mortgage brokers, for example, who are well-versed in the long lead sales process, are also well-suited for the insurance and financial services industry.
With layoffs and unemployment at an all-time high, the entrepreneurial-minded may be more comfortable taking the leap. A career in insurance allows people the opportunity to build their own practice with the support of an established, reputable company. This type of career allows them to be in business for themselves, but not by themselves – an attractive option given the rate of failure for startups, a figure the U.S. Small Business Administration recently estimated to be at roughly 50%, and at a time when jobs are scarce and competition is fierce. Necessity is the mother of invention, and in today’s economy with the current job market, many people are going to find themselves at a crossroads in their career. The paradigm is changing with the next generation entering the workforce in this challenging economy. Career changers will find that making a switch isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Most of the skills people acquire in other fields make the transition an easy one.
There is a lot of uncertainty. But regardless of economic conditions small business owners and consumers have a strong appetite for financial advice and a desire to protect their income, assets and loved ones. We can also count on the Boomer generation to play a major role in the marketplace as they seek out a variety of solutions in order to fund retirement, pay for their children’s college educations, and protect their lifestyles during the credit squeeze that’s gripped the economy.
People are more concerned than ever about financial protection and many are actively looking for ways to help weather the economic crisis. The insurance and financial services industry is a great place to grow your career and use your life experiences from other work to help individuals, small business owners, and their families reach their goals, maximize their wealth, and secure peace of mind.

Helpful Links:

Flash Presentations

The Living Balance Sheet^®for Business

The Living Balance Sheet^® (LBS)

LBS System Security